Does Texas have more Hispanic state legislators than other states? [Updated]

A Tea Party leader is drawing condemnation from both Democratic and Republicans after arguing that too many members of the Texas Legislature are Hispanic.

As the San Antonio Express-News reported, Rebecca Forest, a co-founder of the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas, complained at a weekend rally in support of a so-called sanctuary cities bill that the bill hasn't passed yet because of the ethnic make-up of the Legislature.

"If you want to know why we can't pass legislation in Texas, it's because we have 37, no, 36 Hispanics in the Legislature. So, that's part of our problem, and we need to change those numbers," Forest said. "We need to do something about that in fact."

Her remarks were criticized by a variety of people and groups, including Gov. Rick Perry, House Speaker Joe Straus and the Texas Democratic Party.

Texas actually has a higher percentage of Latino lawmakers in its state legislature than nearly every other state, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. As of 2009, all but a handful of states had five or fewer Latino state legislators. Texas had 37.

That makes the Texas Legislature a full one-fifth Latino as of 2009 (37 of 181 members of the Texas House and Senate). Only New Mexico and California had a higher proportion of Latino members in their state legislatures.

Here's a look at how Hispanic representation has changed since 1992 in the four state legislatures with the most Latino members:

Gov. Rick Perry made passing a ban on sanctuary cities a priority for the Legislature this year. He recently added the measure to the agenda of the current special session. The controversial bill would let law officers ask about immigration status when they arrest or detain someone.

 

UPDATE: For those curious, the four states with the most Latino legislators are also the four states with the highest proportion of Hispanics. New Mexico is the only one of the four that comes close to having its share of Latino legislators match its share of Hispanic residents.

State	2009 Latino share of Legislature	2010 Hispanic share of population
New Mexico	44%	46%
California	23%	38%
Texas	20%	38%
Arizona	14%	30%

 Source: Pew Hispanic Center, NCSL

-Aman Batheja

Comments

[david smith]

No there is no racism in the tea party or immigration debate....ha yea right

[dd]

ha ha ha ha
"at a weekend rally in support of a so-called sanctuary cities bill that the bill hasn't passed yet because of the ethnic make-up of the Legislature."

they are not 'getting their way'. R's shake the stick of 'elections have consequences' in the face of D's ... and now it is shaken BACK in their face.

hahahahaaahahahahaha